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AEM Update Email: December 18, 2020

Monthly email series with tips and best practices for AEM Authors

Mist rising from a tropical forest at dawn
American robin An American robin perches on a snowy branch. © Fyn Kynd/Creative Commons

Hello AEM Authors!

Here are your tips and updates for December 2020. 

In this edition: 

  • AEM Component Update – Direct Links to Anchors
  • AEM DAM Update – Image Downsizing
  • Upcoming GDUs - Web Accessibility 102

AEM Component Update – Direct Links to Anchors

In the latest AEM release we enabled the ability to direct link to an anchor (created with the Anchor Links component) using the title of the anchor. How this works is:

  • you take the full URL of the page,
  • then tack on # and the words on the anchor title separate by dashes (NOT underscores)

For example, if you are linking to the fourth anchor on the Virginia page “Our Virginia: 2020 Impact Report” you would take the full URL: 

https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/virginia/stories-in-virginia/year-in-review/ 

and then add #download-the-report to get:

https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/virginia/stories-in-virginia/year-in-review/#download-the-report

However, if you tried to link to the third anchor “Conservation & Covid” you will have to replace the “&” with the word “and” because the symbol will break the link (https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/virginia/stories-in-virginia/year-in-review/#conservation-and-covid). IMPORTANTLY: Always check any links you manually create before sharing them anywhere or with anyone!

AEM DAM Update – Image Downsizing

Until very recently, we recommended that content authors use the highest resolution images available when uploading new images to the AEM Digital Asset Management System. However, we discovered that the AEM dynamic image sizing does not adequately reduce and optimize images that are larger than 5mb and thus page load speeds have suffered. 

As you will remember, in the September AEM release we restricted the size of images that could be uploaded to below 5 MB. With the existing images over 5 MB, we are in the process of backing up all the originals into a Box folder and replacing those with smaller sized images. That work is ongoing and should be finished by Mid-January 2021. If you need to locate the full size version of an image in the AEM DAM, all authors have been invited to that Box folder with the backups. As a reminder, original, full size images should now be stored in the Aprimo DAM.

Upcoming GDUs - Web Accessibility 102

We are holding two separate Web Accessibility 102 GDU courses this month, on January 20th and 29th. The first is geared towards authors and publishers (you all!) who build pages on nature.org and the second (Jan 29th) is geared towards designers of maps and visual assets. You should have received invites for both sessions - if you did not, please reach out to Jenael (jfalcao@tnc.org) (although please be patient as responses will be slow due to holiday outages). You are welcome to attend both courses or come to the session that best fits your job responsibilities/interests. Both will be recorded and posted on GD Central

 

That’s all for this month! Happy Holidays!